From the Rivers of Babylon to the Highlands of Judah

Sara Japhet

From the Rivers of Babylon to the Highlands of Judah

Collected Studies on the Restoration Period

Sara Japhet

Culled from various books, journals, and festscrifts, the most important essays by Sara Japhet on the biblical restoration period and the books of Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles appear in this accessible collection. Japhet, who is Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and received the Israel Prize for biblical scholarship in 2004, has been a leading scholar on these topics for more than 30 years. Included here are studies on the question of common authorship of Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles, the temple during the restoration period, the use of the law in Ezra-Nehemiah, postexilic historiography, the “remnant” and self-definition during the restoration period, the historical reliability of Chronicles, and conquest and settlement in Chronicles. Scholars and students with an interest in the history, historiography, and theology of the restoration period, and in the interpretation of Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles will want to own this compendium of valuable essays.

Description

Table of Contents

Errata

Culled from various books, journals, and festscrifts, the most important essays by Sara Japhet on the biblical restoration period and the books of Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles appear in this accessible collection. Japhet, who is Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and received the Israel Prize for biblical scholarship in 2004, has been a leading scholar on these topics for more than 30 years. Included here are studies on the question of common authorship of Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles, the temple during the restoration period, the use of the law in Ezra-Nehemiah, postexilic historiography, the “remnant” and self-definition during the restoration period, the historical reliability of Chronicles, and conquest and settlement in Chronicles. Scholars and students with an interest in the history, historiography, and theology of the restoration period, and in the interpretation of Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles will want to own this compendium of valuable essays.

Chapter 1: The Supposed Common Authorship of Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah Investigated Anew

Chapter 2: Conquest and Settlement in Chronicles

Chapter 3: Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel against the Background of the Historical and Religious Tendencies of Ezra-Nehemiah: Part 1

Chapter 4: Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel against the Background of the Historical and Religious Tendencies of Ezra-Nehemiah: Part 2

Chapter 5: People and Land in the Restoration Period

Chapter 6: The Historical Reliability of Chronicles: The History of the Problem and Its Place in Biblical Research

Chapter 7: Law and ‘The Law’ in Ezra-Nehemiah

Chapter 8: ‘History’ and ‘Literature’ in the Persian Period: The Restoration of the Temple

Chapter 9: The Relationship between Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah

Chapter 10: The Temple in the Restoration Period: Reality and Ideology

Chapter 11: The Israelite Legal and Society Reality as Reflected in Chronicles: A Case Study

Chapter 12: Composition and Chronology in the Book of Ezra-Nehemiah

Chapter 13: The Prohibition of the Habitation of Women: The Temple Scroll’s Attitude toward Sexual Impurity and Its Biblical Precedents

Chapter 14: The Distribution of the Priestly Gifts according to a Document of the Second Temple Period

Chapter 15: Postexilic Historiography: How and Why?

Chapter 16: Exile and Restoration in the Book of Chronicles

Chapter 17: Can the Persian Period Bear the Burden? Reflections on the Origins of Biblical History

Chapter 18: Periodization between History and Ideology: The Neo-Babylonian Period in Biblical Historiography

Chapter 19: Theodicy in Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles

Chapter 20: Chronicles: A History

Chapter 21: Periodization between History and Ideology II: Chronology and Ideology in Ezra-Nehemiah

Chapter 22: The Concept of the ‘Remnant’ in the Restoration Period: On the Vocabulary of Self-Definition

Indexes

Due to a production error, four pages were omitted from the hardback version of the book; they are included in the paperback. You may download the Preface and Acknowledgments here in PDF format.

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